Basketball club «Astana» in the home match of VTB United League will try to take revenge from Saratov «Avtodor». The game will take place on Sunday, January 31st, starting at 15:00 Nur-Sultan time.
ATTENTION! — Due to the restrictive measures introduced in the capital aimed to tackle down the coronavirus pandemic, the match will be held without spectators with empty stands.
«Avtodor» is a Russian professional men's basketball club from the city of Saratov, founded in 1960.
Achievements:
• Silver medalist of the Russian Championship — 1993/1994, 1996/1997, 1997/1998, 1998/1999
• Bronze medalist of the Championship of Russia — 1995/1996
• Semi-finalist of the European Cup — 1997/1998
• Champion of Super League A — 1996/1997, 1997/1998
• Superleague B Champion — 2008/2009
• Super League Champion — 2013/2014
• Bronze medalist of the Super League — 2012/2013
«Avtodor « in the first game against «Astana», which took place in Saratov at the beginning of the season on October 22, won a fairly confident victory —
107: 85. It should be noted that then in the first quarter Saratov team scored almost every shot, and this advantage, created after the first ten minutes, became the main guarantee of their victory in that game. The successful streak of the Saratov team began from that match when they celebrated victory after four games in a row. “Khimki”, “Tsmoki-Minsk”, “Lokomotiv-Kuban” and “Enisey” could not resist the Saratov team. In the last game before the New Year, they lost only one point to «Zielona Gora». This year «Avtodor» is not playing so successfully. They lost substantially in matches with UNICS and “Zenit”, then they were able to win a home victory in the game against “Kalev”. In the last two games, Saratov lost at home to CSKA and away game to «Zielona Gora».
Tournament position:
Before playing the second game with our team, «Avtodor» had played 13 games and won six of them. This result allows the Saratov team to be on the seventh line of the standings. It is worth noting that when «Avtodor» played more successfully, they were among the top three leaders. “Astana” played 12 regular-season games and so far we have only 4 victories and find ourselves on the tenth line in the standings. The outcome of this game will not affect the position of “Astana” and in any case, our guys will remain on the tenth line, while “Avtodor” will keep the seventh line in case of a victory, and in case of defeat they will let “Khimki” ahead.
Roster changes:
There have been significant changes in the «Avtodor» roster since the previous match. On the same day, when the game with “Astana” took place, two players left the Saratov team at once — American Ben Emelogu and Russian player Nikolay Mukha. By the way, Nikolay continued his career in Kazakhstan, in the Aktobe team, and now he is announced for Karaganda. In December, another Russian player, Yegor Bestuzhev, went on loan to «Ufimets». Less than a week before the game in Nur-Sultan, it became known that Avtodor had terminated the contract with American centre Drew Gordon.
As for the newcomers, the Saratov team immediately signed up four young players from the farm team — forwards Alexander Baryshev, Vadim Kharisov, Vsevolod Shirobokov and Ilya Saltykov, but apart from Saltykov, none of them has entered the court. Also, three foreign players have joined Avtodor. Puerto Rico guard Gian Clavell played for the first time for Avtodor on 26 November. He began his career in Puerto Rico with «Brujos de Guayama» and then joined the NBA with «Dallas Mavericks». After that, he played in Europe — Turkish “Sakarya” and “Bursasport”, as well as Spanish “Estudiantes”. In December, the team was joined by the centre from Chad — Christ Koumadje with very impressive parameters — 224 cm and 124 kg. Christ became the best defensive player in the NBA Development League in his debut season with the Delaware «Blue Coates», and this season he started with the Spanish «Estudiantes». On January 27, Avtodor announced the signing of centre Dusan Ristic, exactly the one who was one of the leaders of «Astana» last season. But whether Dusan will participate in the match with our team is open to question.
Rival leaders:
The most effective and efficient in the team is the American Nate Mason. Another team leader is Croatian forward Zeljko Sakic. There are few more: Markel Starks, Gian Clavell, Nikita Mikhailovsky and Anton Kvitkovsky. In addition, the coaching staff of Avtodor often engages Alan Makiev, Alexander Petenev and Evgeny Minchenko.
The match will take place on Sunday, January 31 in Nur-Sultan at the arena of the Republican cycle track «Saryarka», beginning at 15:00 Nur-Sultan time. The online broadcast of the match will be available on our website in the
Match Center section, as well as live on the
QazSport TV channel.
Detailed information about the tournament, tournament tables, schedule and match results are published in the
Tournaments section.
